UpTime, Youtube’s Long Anticipated App, Now Available To All

UpTime, YouTube’s app that lets you watch videos with friends, is now free and open to all. Uptime was announced back in March, and ironically enough was available only on iOS.

So far, the app was an invitation-only platform for the few in-the-know. However, as Techcrunch reports, this barrier has now been lifted, and UpTime is now available for download to everyone – again, only iOS users.

UpTime was developed with the help of Area120, Google’s own incubator and its selling point was that it allowed users to watch videos with their friends. Instead of sharing links to videos via social media or messaging platform, UpTime lets friends view content straight from the app.

Moreover, it has borrowed elements of other live streaming platforms, such as Facebook Live and Periscope, as it gives the options for friends to share reactions and stickers, while viewing the videos. Users can share comments and hearts, “Sparkles,” heart eyes, angry faces and many more.

You can either choose to join the session in real time, with the rest of your friends, or opt to join in later, in your own time. Even if you go for the latter, UpTime will share with you your friends’ reactions and comments, so that you can still have a somewhat interactive experience.

Finally, UpTime gives you the opportunity to discover new and popular content, as well as connect with other people on the app and follow them to see what they’re sharing.

Could UpTime eventually include more features or get a meaningful integration with YouTube? Looks like this could be the case, and we will be expecting further developments.